Clean-up of some organochlorine and pyrethroid insecticides by automated solid-phase extraction cartridges coupled to capillary GC-ECD

The ASPEC (Automatic Sample Preparation with Extraction Columns) system has been coupled on-line to capillary GC-ECD by means of a loop-type interface equipped with a solvent vapour exit. Both ASPEC and GC conditions have been optimized leading to an effective clean-up of the extracts analyzed. By means of solid-phase extraction cartridges filled with silica, it has been possible to analyze concentrated surface water extracts for a group of 18 electron-capturing compounds present in the water at ppt levels. ASPEC-GC has also been applied to the determination of synthetic pyrethroids at ppt levels in surface water. The complete analytical procedure is greatly facilitated by automation and miniaturization. Miniaturization results in a considerable decrease in the sample volume required. The potential of the method for the analysis of other pesticides is estimated.     

Primary sequences of insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 isolated from porcine plasma

Insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 were purified from porcine plasma. In addition to the determination of their isoelectric points, the primary structures of both proteins were determined, using low microgram quantities of protein, by the versatile combination of time-of-flight plasma desorption mass spectrometry and automated Edman degradation. Porcine insulin-like growth factor 1 was shown to be homologous to both human and bovine proteins; the type 2 growth factor showed one mutation to both human and bovine type 2 proteins.     

Metallic susceptibility in giant molecule: Pd561Phen36O200

The giant metal cluster molecule Pd₅₆₁Phen₃₆O _x is the largest member of a series that has recently been prepared by Schmid [1]. Pronounced size effects are expected to show up in the magnetic properties of metal particles of the size of the Pd-561 core of the molecule. We have measured the susceptibility on four different batches of the material, with quite satisfactory reproducibility. There is a low temperature tail that is attributed to small amounts of impurities. The nearly temperature-independent paramagnetism that is observed is most probably due to an exchange enhanced Pauli spin susceptibility and is already close to the bulk value. The absence of size effects, i.e. a drop at low temperatures, is either due to interactions between the clusters or a result of a very small energy level spacing.     

Intramolecular meta photocycloaddition of 6-arylhex-2-enes Part 2

The course of the intramolecular meta photocycloaddition of ring-substituted (E)- and (Z)- 6-phenylhex-2-enes depends on the position and nature of the substituent. In this paper, the effects of methyl and cyano groups and the fluorine atom are described. The results are in agreement with a reaction mechanism in which the excited phenyl ring becomes polarized when it is approached by the alkene. The dipolar character becomes particularly apparent in the case of fluorine which, depending on its position, can stabilize either the negative charge through its inductive effect or the positive charge through its mesomeric effect. The configuration of the terminal methyl group sterically influences the photoreaction. The Z alkenes readily undergo the 1′,3′-addition, but fail to add in the 2′,6′-mode, even if substituents which strongly promote this mode are present. The E alkenes seem to suffer from steric hindrance in the 2′,6′- and the 1′,3′-mode, but the electronic effects of activating substituents provide compensation and substituents may have a pronounced influence on the ratio of the two modes.     

Mechanisms of repeller-induced effects in thermospray liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

The application of a high potential at the repeller electrode, positioned opposite to the sampling cone in order to increase the sampling efficiency, can induce fragmentation in thermospray mass Spectrometry. Until now, this fragmentation has been attributed to collision-induced dissociation. As a result of studies on the changes in the reagent gas composition in the thermospray buffer ionization mode as a function of the repeller potential in the positive-ion mode, it appears that three different processes are occurring. At low repeller potentials, the thermospray mass spectra of the eluent are determined by the proton affinities and the concentrations of the various solvent constituents, and the stabilities of the formed cluster ions under the ion source conditions. With an increase in the repeller potential, collision-induced dissociation of the background ions starts to occur. When the kinetic energy of the ions and cluster ions becomes high enough, endothermic proton transfer and solvent-switching reaction pathways are opened. For the relatively volatile analytes studied, e.g. aniline, acetophenone, benzaldehyde and benzoic acid, similar effects are observed.     

Ab initio SCF calculations on [V10O28]6−: A benchmark for the classical calculation and processing of molecular integrals on large Gaussian basis sets

A vector efficient implementation of the McMurchie and Davidson algorithm for the calculation of one- and two-electron molecular integrals is presented, as available in the Cray version of the ASTERIX program system. The implementation and performance of a vector-oriented strategy for the generation and processing of the P supermatrix is also discussed. This program system has been applied to the ab initio SCF computation of the ground-state wave function for the [V₁₀O₂₈]^6? ion, with a basis set of triple-zeta quality for the valence shell of oxygen generating 1404 GTOS and 574 CGTOS for the complete system. The performance and the bottlenecks of the integral calculation are discussed as a function of the integral classes. Two-dimensional maps of the electrostatic potential are presented for this molecule and compared to experimental information about proton fixation.     

Production of textile filaments from carboxymethylated cellulosic pulps

Cellulose - Textile filaments were fabricated from a solution obtained from carboxymethylated cellulose dissolved in aqueous NaOH solution, by wet spinning in an acid coagulation bath. Spinning is...